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Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society 

OF RHODE ISLAND. 



PERSONAL NARRATIVES: 



Fourth Series, No. 17. 



RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 



^ND HOME. 



A 



By ALFRED S. ROE, 

(Late Private, Co. A, Ninth New York Heavy Artillery Volunteers.) 



4^-4^4^ 



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PERSONAL NARRATIVES 



OF EVENTS IN THE 



War of the Rebellion, 



RHODE ISLAND SOLDIERS AND SAILORS 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Fourth Series — No. 17. 



pkovioknce: 
published by the socikty. 

18U2. 



Monograph 



Snow & Farnham, Printeks, 

37 Custom House Street. 
1892 

Gift 
Society 

i£P 30 W» 



RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 



AND 



HOME. 



BY 

ALFRED S. ROE, 
(Late Private, Co. A, Ninth New York Heavy Artillery Volunteers.) 



PROVIDENCE : 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 

1892. 



3 J » 



^(Sp H 1.. 



T1 



AjfoTl ^ 



[Edition limited to two hundred and fifty copies.] 



Richmond, Annapolis, 

AND HOME. 



The horrors of that night, from Danville to Rich- 
mond, can never be effaced from memory's tablet. 
Eighty well men in one ordinary box car would cer- 
tainly be uncomfortable, but when we remember 
that these prisoners had suffered much from long 
imprisonment, that there were men in the car who 
could not stand alone, that the scurvy, dysentery, 
and many other ailments had their representatives, 
some notion of the night that was before us may be 
had. We were disposed to endure a great deal, for 
we knew that our way was homeward, but the con- 



NoTE.— For preceding experiences of the author, see his papers, No. 10, 
Third Series, " Recollections of Monocacy;" No. 1, Fourth Series, " From 
Monocacy to Danville; " and No. 16. Fourth Series, " In a Rebel Prison : or. 
Experiences in Danville, Va." 



6 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

dition at times, seemed absolutely unendurable. 
The air was very keen and frosty, as cold as it often 
gets in the latitude of southern Virginia, so in our 
poorly clad state, it seemed necessary to have the 
car door shut. The interior, in some respects, soon 
resembled that of the famous Black Hole of Calcutta. 
The guard who stood at the dooi- suffered with the rest 
of us. The moment the door was shoved open for 
a breath of air, some freezing wretch would clamor 
for its immediate closing. Finally, I asked and ob- 
tained the privilege of going to the top of the car 
to ride there. Since there was no danger of any 
one's trying to escape, my proposition found favor 
at once, both from the guard and from my fellow 
prisoners who wanted my room. It will be readily 
surmised that my move was not a jump from the 
frying pan into the^re. On the contrary, quite the 
reverse. My new Hades was like that described by 
Dante, where the lost are infernally and eter- 
nally preserved in vast masses of never melting ice. 
I lay down at full length upon the car, with my head 
towards Richmond and my face next to the car. I 
didn't freeze, that is evident, but I was just about 



AND HOME. 7 

as cold as I could be and still be able to move. 
Frequent stops were the order in the South during 
the war. Accordingly Avhen the train drew up at a 
station it was possible for me to climb down and in 
for a change. Sleep was the last thingthought of dur- 
ing these hours, but the obstacles within and without 
being quite too numerous to be overcome. As for 
myself, I alternated nearly the whole night long, 
between the interior and exterior of the car. I 
have very little recollection of the places or stations 
past which we went, save one, pronounced Powatan, 
destined, in a few months, to have a world wide fame 
through the closing scenes in the great strife to be 
enacted near ; but I was not a prophet and so knew 
nothing of the glories of the future. To me it was 
simply a place named after an Indian chief whose 
name I had all my life mispronounced as Powhatan, 
and whose more famous daughter, Pocahontas, had 
rendered a distressed Englishman most excellent 
service, once on a time. I wondered whether the 
scene of the saving were not near, hence accounting 
for the name. Our guard, however, had not re- 
ceived much culture from the schools, and so was 



8 KICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

quite unable to shed any light upon the subject. 
He simply knew that we were Yanks, proverbial for 
curiosity, whose zeal for knowledge not even months 
of imprisonment could extinguish. 

Morning brought the sun and Richmond. I was 
taking one of my reliefs on the car top when the fa- 
mous city came in sight. Had I then known all the 
bearings of the capital of the Confederacy, my ex- 
alted outlook mio^ht have given me a view of the 
prison of Belle Isle, for it was plainly visible 
at my left. This I did not know. Then I was more 
intent on the sight of the James, which the events 
of more than two hundred years had rendered his- 
torical. The bridge itself was the one soon to be 
burned on the flight of the Confederate president. 
We halt just over the stream, and are marched, as 
we suppose, to Libby. From the names on the 
street corners I soon learned that we were on Carey 
street. From my outside perch it had been easy 
for me to get pretty near the head of the line. Our 
march, however, was destined to be a short one, for 
in a few minutes we discovered ahead of us the cel- 
ebrated sign "Libby & Sons, Ship Chandlers and 



AND HOME. y 

Grocers." I well remember saying to my nearest 
comrade, "Wouldn't that sign be a drawing card at a 
Sanitary Fair up North ? " Some weeks afterwards, 
I was not a little pleased at seeing the same sign ad- 
vertised as the most interesting object at a fair in, I 
think, Philadelphia. 

Our march and observations were temporarily 
halted in front of a very large building which, from 
its numerous disconsolate occupants, we concluded 
to be a prison of some sort. Naturally we thought 
the prisoners unfortunates similar to ourselves, but 
on our making sundry remarks, we were informed 
in tones unmistakably Secesh, " We ain't Yanks, 
wer'e Rebs." There could be no doubt about that. 
No man, born north of Mason and Dixon's Line, could 
articulate in such a thin speeched manner as that. 
We were in front of Castle Thunder, long the prison 
house of Confederate deserters and political prison- 
ers generally. Here we are made to march out in 
single file, that we might be the better numbered. 
Of course we thought our destination to be the no- 
torious Libby, but we were pushed right along and 
into a building opposite, which we soon learned was 



10 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

called Pembertou, and a sorry old rookery it was, 
too. It was three stories high, an old tobacco ware- 
house, deserving a history of its own, but almost 
entirely lost sight of in the greater reputation of its 
neighbor, Libby. We were under precisely the 
same rule as the other edifice but were under a dif- 
ferent name. As we were sure that our stay was to 
be very short in Richmond, we were disposed to en- 
dure all our ills with a deal of complacency, think- 
ing them to be of brief duration. Our food was of 
the regulation pattern, corndodger, compact and al- 
most saltless, with as much water as we could coax 
out of the dribbling faucets. We were as hungry 
as famine could make us, but of this kind of ration 
our stomachs were thoroughly cloyed. We ate but 
little of it and threw the remainder on the floor, 
much to the disgust of our Rebel 2;uards who assured 
us that we might have to go hungry for our waste- 
fulness ; but we ran the risk and awaited the issue. 
The debris was gathered up and thrown into the 
street, where it afibrded causes for unlimited quar- 
relling among the colored people as long as there 
was anything left. The officer who came in each 



AND HOME. 11 

mornino; to count us was either a good actor or a 
perfect devil, for each time that he made his appear- 
ance, he came cursing and swearing up the stairs 
with a revolver in one hand and his note book in the 
other. He had an escort of two or three soldiers to 
see that the terrible Yankees did not eat him, I sup- 
pose. He may have been Dick Turner himself, but 
I cannot say. At any rate, he filled the Turner de- 
scriptive list pretty well. His morning salutation 
was something like this : "Fall into line, you G — 
d — d Yankee sons of b — s." It was new usage to 
us, but he had the advantage of us in that he had 
the energy of position. We might inwardly resent, 
but we thought the best thing for us to do was to 
get into place just as quickly as possible. There 
was no back talk, not a word, but if looks could have 
killed, he had been a dead man a dozen times. His 
conduct was of a piece with that generally had in 
Richmond, I am told. Our views of the city, as in 
Danville, had to be taken at a proper distance from 
the windows. One day we heard a tremendous 
hurrahing and soon saw a large number of men filing 
by our building. They seemed to be in excellent 



12 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

condition and spirits. We subsequently learned that 
they were paroled prisoners from the north who had 
just come up the river. Tiiey were very enthusias- 
tically greeted by the citizens, and they acted as 
though they had had enough to eat in their northern 
residence. The contrast with the weakened condi- 
tion about us was painfully apparent. They marched 
off, as we did, when we were well fed at home. The 
appointments of Pemberton were not so convenient 
as those of Danville, bad as we thought the latter. 
The sinks were at the end of the room, and the oc- 
cupants of the upper floors were at the mercy of 
those below, for if the water were set running there 
then those above could wait till it suited the conven- 
ience of their compatriots for them to be served. 
Of course we could go below ourselves if we liked, 
but we were not very well received when we went 
traveling:. The inevitable result of our want of suf- 
ficient water was a very sad condition of sanitation. 
I am able to record that I was in Libby Prison, in 
war times, if only for a moment. Men were called 
for to go over to Libby for the purpose of getting 
some wood. Thinking it an opportunity that I could 



AND HOME. 13 

not afford to lose, I at once volunteered, and with 
several others went across the street to the edifice 
and down behind it, where on the canal or riverside, 
we found an entrance to the lower regions. This 
basement seemed to be a sort of wood-house. Of 
course my eyes were open for what might fill them, 
and I remember asking the guard if he could show 
me the place through which Colonel Straight and his 
comrades escaped? He pointed out a large opening 
in the wall as the excavation made by the redoubta- 
ble Indiana officer, but in the light of subsequent 
knowledge, I am convinced that he was imposing- 
upon me. However I was just as happy then over 
my information as I would have been had it been 
bona fide truth. I didn't know the difference. How 
frequently is ignorance bliss ! 

The morning of the memorable 22d of February, 
1865, was destined to bring to us more than usual 
significance. It was to be to us the day of libera- 
tion. I cannot recall the hour, but on this day we 
were ordered into line and again we bade adieu to a 
prison-house and filed out into Carey street. Now 

we turn towards the east and it looks as thouo-h 
2 ° 



14 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

home were in prospect. Our progress, though, is 
slow and there are many waitings which we try to 
fill in with observations on our surroundings. The 
"Johnny " dialect comes in for a deal of criticism. 
The average Southron will beat any other mortal 
living in dividing monosylables. To him " Guard " 
is always "Gyard." "You" and ''we" become 
"You-uus" and " We-uns." He likes authority, 
too, and the devoted guard was kept in a constant 
panic, lest he was not in the right place. 

It was during our march to the landing that I was 
guilty of my only offence in passing bad money. 
A year or more before, a cousin had visited my 
father's home, and coming directly from a commercial 
college, he had some of the so-called currency used 
in the make-believe banking of the college. Natu- 
rally he gave me a specimen of the bills, and as 
naturally I laid my acquisition away in my pocket. 
There it had remained during all my campaigning and 
imprisonment till this day. As before stated, we 
did not eat much of the food given to us by the 
rebels, but we were very hungry all the same. So 
when on our way down, the people came about us 



AND HOME. 15 

with food for sale, anxious to get some of the north- 
ern money, there arose in me a disposition to work 
off that spurious bill so long in my possession. To 
cut a long story short, it bought for me a loaf of 
bread, which was speedily put where it would do 
the most good. Was I justifiable? Let some one 
as hungry as myself answer. Any criticism from 
well fed stay-at-homes will not be accepted. When 
John Brown was asked if he could find any Bible 
justification in his destruction of property and life 
in his Harper's Ferry raid, he is said to have replied, 
" Shall we not spoil the Egyptians ? " After all we 
were not particularly concerned about great moral 
questions in those days. 

In the days before my enlistment, I had been an 
eager reader and an ardent admirer of Edgar Allen 
Poe. Just before me was the very stream in whose 
waters he is said to have swum seven miles, and I 
wondered whether his course was over the route 
about to be travelled by us. 

I have stopped in Richmond twice since that day 
in February. The first time was in the following 
May, when the Sixth Corps marched down from its 



16 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

camp in Manchester, opposite, and crossed the James 
on a pontoon bridge placed very near the point 
where we took the boat on our departure from the 
city. My original visit was confined to the vicinity 
of Carey street. Then 1 was under rebel guidance, 
now I was carrying a gun and we maiched by the 
flank with fixed bayonets making, as we ascended 
State street, a glittering sea of burnished steel. 
From walk to walk there was just one mass of glis- 
tening points. The blinds of the houses were nearly 
all closed, for the occupants had no eyes for such a 
sight as this. That one view of the array of arms 
behind me was something of a compensation for the 
rigors of my introduction to the capital of the Con- 
federacy. 

My second revisiting was in February, 1888. 
Then I went purposely to see what I could of the 
places so prominent twenty-five years before. The 
Pemberton of the Rebellion had disappeared by fire, 
and in its place was an honest blacksmith shop where 
diligent toilers were earning a livelihood. Only a 
tradition places the old building on the site. Libby 
is yet standing, soon however to be transported to 



AND HOME. 17 

Chicago. "Another reason," I hoard a man remark, 
" why that city should suffer from another conflagra- 
tion." Despite the overpowering odor of phosphate 
fertilizers, I have little trouble in doing the edifice 
and in tracing out the spots where misery was once 
so rife. I seek out the home of Jeffercson Davis dur- 
ing the war, now the peaceful abode of a girls' 
school. The capital is entered and all its resources 
explored. I go into the library and note the prom- 
inence of Confederate faces and flags, and I wonder 
if Virginia had any history before the war. Per- 
haps the fact that it was a lost cause has given to 
the strife a peculiar tenderness, for certain it is that 
we of the north know nothing of the intensity of 
the fervor with which the average southron regards 
all memories of the Rebellion. Climbingr to the cu- 
pola of the structure I can see the whole city spread 
out before me. Just at my feet is the famous eques- 
trian statue of Washington, surrounded by other 
notable sons of Virginia, fortunately erected before 
the war, or it would not have been constructed at 
all, for now the Mother of Presidents is devoting; all 
her resources to commemorating the memories of 



18 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

her Lees and Jacksons, men who did their best to 
destroy that which her Washington, Jefferson, and 
others labored and fought to build. On the other 
side of the street is the church in which Davis was 
— shall I say, " worshiping," when the news of the 
breaking of the lines was brouo-ht to him and whence 
he made his hurried flight. And then to Hollywood 
where repose so many whom the nation knows. The 
guide will tell you that three presidents are buried 
here, but naturally he can only name two, for the 
very good reason that Monroe and Tyler are the 
only ones. From their graves we pass to that por- 
tion of the cemetery devoted to the Confederate dead. 
As we wander among the graves or stand beside the 
pyramidal structure that feminine devotion has reared 
to Confederate valor, we will doft' our hats, for we 
know that those who met us in open fight were 
brave, and that they deserve of us what is a tribute 
to bravery everywhere, respect. There is one more 
place to visit, and we cross the James and stand 
upon the accursed soil of Belle Isle. We can find 
not the slightest trace of the horrors that made this 
name a hiss and a by-word among all Christian peo- 



AND HOME. 19 

pie. The river, however, flows by just as muddy 
and just as forbidding as when it formed an effectual 
barrier to the famishing prisoner held upon the island. 
Noisy and busy iron-works occupy the eastern end 
of the isle, and only a barren waste is found 
where once was suffered unutterable agony. I won- 
der why Chicago doesn't buy Belle Isle ! Anchored 
out in her lake and made over again it would form 
another excellent reason why the World's Fair 
should not go to the champion boaster of this earth, 
whose founder has recently been discovered in the 
person of old Boreas himself. 

We were told that we were the first detachment 
to go down the river under the resumption of the 
general cartel of exchange ; but of this I am not 
prepared to affirm or deny. I do know that we 
were a very happy lot of men and boys on our way 
to what we called God's country, happy though we 
knew that we had left behind us upon the prison 
floor the dead bodies of two of our comrades. They 
had died on the very threshold of freedom. In fancy 
I often see those lonely bodies stretched in death, 
bodies whose souls had only a day or two before re- 



20 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

joiced with us on the advent of certain liberty ; but 
they were not strong enough for the journey, and 
the cup fell from thera even when at their very lips. 
Another who was supported by tender hands as we 
went down to the boat, had not the strength to leave 
it, and was carried back to Richmond for rebel 
burial . 

The boat itself is only a dim image through the 
intervening years. I remember that in front of the 
pilot house were seated Gen. Robert Quids, well- 
known in the annals of prisoner exchanges as the 
Confederate Commissioner, and by his side were 
Brigadier-Generals John Hays, of New York, and 
A. N. Duffie, of Rhode Island, the unsuccessful gar- 
roter in the attempted escape from Danville. They 
had not the least trace of any differences of opinions, 
and for aught that we could see they were friends of 
Ion Of standing. I envied the Union officers the in- 
formation that I was certain the commissioner was 
giving them. I knew that we were passing historic 
scenes, but ray comrades were as ignorant as mj'self, 
and the rebel guards were as stupid as usual, and 
that means that their education did not begin very 



AND HOME. 21 

early. The boat picked its way very gingerl}^ all 
the distance down, for the river was well planted 
with torpedoes, and the rebs knew how thoroughly 
loaded they were. Some points we recognized with- 
out any informants, as a frowning fortification on 
our right we readily named Fort Darling, long a 
source of Federal anxiety. The Dutch Gap canal, 
the scene of General Butler's efforts, is also found ; 
but in the main the descent of the stream is rather 
tame. At Richmond some of the men had received 
long delayed boxes, and now on their way down the 
river they regaled themselves with the contents. 
They were objects of almost wolfish regard to their 
fellow prisoners, in whose stomachs there were 
vacua ol' long existence. How quickly we forget 
our ills. An oflScer, whose stomach had become 
pretty well filled by the contents of his box, was 
about to throw overboard a cheese rind. I had been 
watching the man for some time, wondering where 
my share was to come in. Disgusted at such wicked 
wastefulness I eagerly sought the morsel for myself. 
It was given to me, but with much the same ex- 
pression that a rebel ofl5cer's fece wore when he saw 



22 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

a half famished prisoner in Danville gnawing raven- 
ously at an old hone that he had picked up some- 
where. 1 helieve the rebel called upon the Saviour 
of mankind in no reverent manner to witness that 
he had never seen anything so disgusting before. 
My donor had forgotten his own feelings a few hours 
previously when he too would have eaten anything 
that he could find, clean or filthy. 

Just a little ways below Butler's canal, in fact 
scarcely more than around the bend, we are de- 
liojhted at the sio^ht of a man standing on the shore 
holding a white flag. It is Colonel Mulford, the 
Federal Commissioner of Exchange, and he is await- 
ing us. We are all excitement and naturally so. A 
few paces back of him are several soldiers, a sort of 
escort. Our boat rounds up to the landing, which 
we learn is Aiken's, very appropriately named, we 
thought, for it was just the place we had been ach- 
ing to reach for many a long and weary day. The 
guards have difficulty in keeping us away from the 
side of the vessel, so anxious are we to be the first 
off the boat and so the first out of the Confederacy. 
Force only prevented many jumping from the boat 



AND HOME. 23 

in our insane eagerness to touch the shore. Colonel 
Mulford is hailed with as loud a cheer as we are ca- 
pable of giving, and soon the plank is run out for us 
to debark. The survival of the fittest is in order, 
and those who are best preserved come to the front. 
Instead, however, of our getting oif in the hit-or- 
niiss order, characteristic of a Sunday-school pic- 
nic, we are obliged to get in line that we may be 
counted for the last time in the Confederacy. For 
months I had been only a numeral. Every day 
somebody had counted me, and I would have been 
missed as one less if I had disappeared, but in no 
other way. No enemy had taken my name nor ap- 
parently cared for it. Now I was about to recover 
my identity, to be something more than a mathe- 
matical fact. I leave the vessel the eighteenth man, 
and Brutus like I could have embraced the earth 
upon which I trod. With one accord we try^to do 
justice to our liberation by vociferous shouting, but 
here too we ftiil. Though we had used our voices 
during our imprisonment, it was in no boisterous 
manner, and we were quite unequal to the occasion. 
Instead of the bold, manly tones of old, we found 



24 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

our voices dwindled to childish trebles and our ut- 
terances scarcely more than chicken peeps. 

Near by are ambulances for the conveyance of 
those who cannot walk, and ihoy are many. Can I 
walk? Yes, to Washington, if necessary, if it only 
be northward, i)ut I have overrated my strength. 
The sio-ht of friendly faces and the breath of freedom 
have intoxicated me, and I am not conscious of my 
own weakness. Three miles intervene between us 
and the vessel that is to take us homeward. We 
set our faces with much determination towards Va- 
rina where we are to be received. Weariness is an 
absurdity. But dame nature tolerates no nonsense. 
She is not enthusiastic. Legs that have had no 
other sustenance than that afforded by scanty ra- 
tions of corn-dodger for long months soon weaken. 
We eflfervesce quickly, and the distance at first so 
insio-niticant grows to a long and tedious march. 
Many could not make it and had to be picked up by 
the ambulances. However the end comes at last, 
and as we rise a little hillock and see the reception 
provided for us, tears start from many an eye. It 
is the 22d of February, Washington's birthday, and 



AND HOME. 25 

all the bunting that the military and shipping pos- 
sessed was flung to the breezes. What a sight for 
flag-hungry eyes ! To my mind there is nothing 
lacking in the way of beauty in the American flag. 
Poets and orators have descanted upon its glories, 
but they have never done it justice, simply because 
it is impossible. There are thoughts in the soul too 
sublime for utterance, and such I think must be 
those of a man whom necessity has separated from 
his country for a time, and to whose view comes 
suddenly the emblem of all that the patriot holds 
dear, that for which he would ofter up his life if 
necessary. To add to the pleasures of the hour a 
mounted band, said to be from Massachusetts, was 
playing national airs. It Avas a greeting long to be 
remembered. Red, white and blue in color har- 
monized perfectly with the same in sound. The 
Star Spangled Banner from brazen throats was 
wafted back by gaudy pennons whose brilliant hues 
flashed from every mast, and rainbow-like encircled 
ship and cordage. 

" Man shall not live by bread alone " was uttered 
long ago, and its truth is not disputed. Equally 



26 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

true is its converse that man cannot live on senti- 
ment. For us, those vessels contained good honest 
food and we knew it, and we stood not on the order 
of our going as we approached them. We were a 
hard looking lot. Ragged beyond description, and 
as filthy as ragged. Long contact with the floors of 
our prison houses had not kept our garments over 
nice. Hunger was evident in every look and move- 
ment. It was no triflinfj task to feed such a herd. 
Now that we were so near something to eat, it 
seemed as if Ave must famish before food could be 
furnished to us. A waiter at the tables of the ofli- 
cers goes through our midst Avith a pail of refuse, 
intending to throw it overboard. He is at once set 
upon by hungry men Avho would rob the pail of its 
contents, to such an insane pitch has their hunger 
risen. It is only by main force that he breaks 
through the crowd and throws away the filth, saluted 
however, by a perfect howl of rage from the disap- 
pointed prisoners, who manifest a disposition to 
throw him over along with the garbage. 

" Fall in for rations," is the most welcome remark 
that we have heard in many a day, and it needs no 



AND HOME. 27 

repetition for we are tliere immediately. Four hard 
tack each, a small piece of boiled salt pork and a 
quart of coftee were the items given us, it being 
presumed that in our enfeebled condition a greater 
quantity would be harmful ; but I had gauged my 
stomach differently, and I was certain that small 
amount Avould not do for me. It was an easy mat- 
ter to receive my portion in one place and then 
slipping around to another point get a second share. 
I doubled the rations of hard bread and pork, and 
after stowing all this away Avhere it was safe, I 
wrapped an old bed cover that I had found about me 
and sought my couch for the night, said couch being 
the deck of the vessel. Were m}^ dreams pleasant? 
No follower of the advice in Thanatopsis ever laid 
himself down to happier sleep. 

Our ship was the George Leary, and when I went 
to sleep she was quietly flying her colors at her dock 
called Varina. When I awoke she was well on her 
way to Annapolis. There was little to vary the mo- 
notony of eating and sleeping till we reached An- 
napolis, which was on the morning of February 24th. 

We leave our floating quarters and file through 



28 IIICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

the grounds of the United States Naval School, and 
are soon drawn up before the headquarters in Col- 
lege Green Barracks. This depot was thus named 
from its occupying the back premises of St. John's 
College, an Episcopal institution, whose most fa- 
mous graduate, I was repeatedly told while in An- 
napolis, was Reverdy Johnson, for many years a 
distinguished member of the United States Senate 
from Maryland. There was a curious company of 
paroled men standing by to greei us. Much to my 
surprise some one from the throng called out, "Is 
that you, Roe?" I had to confess that it was Roe, 
or what was left of him. My saluter was one 
Schiffer, a member of the Fifth New York Cavalry, 
and a fellow worker of mine in the disbursing office 
at Auburn, N. Y. After handshakes and mutual in- 
quiries as to how we got there, he asks me if I am 
hungry. To this I have only to tell him to look at 
me. It is enough. He disappears only to reappear 
with a whole loaf of bread, a huge piece of boiled 
beef, and two big cucumber pickles. To divide my 
prizes with my nearest neighbor, Ed. Cady, is the 
work of a moment. Another moment suffices to 



AND HOME. 29 

get rid of the food, at any rate of all external indi- 
cations. Schifler continues his kind offices by ask- 
ing me if I wouldn't like some money. To this 
proposition I am nothing loth, and a couple of dol- 
lars are speedily transferred from him to me. Be- 
fore breaking ranks we are furnished with certain 
necessary utensils and told when and where to get 
our rations ; but I was too hungry to wait for any 
cook-house signal, so as quickly as possible I made 
my way to the sutler's and invested in about a foot 
of Bologna sausage and a dozen ginger cookies. 
With these I proceeded to the quarters assigned me 
and there endeavored again to satisfy my hunger. 
I had not more than eaten this last supply when the 
bugle summoned us to the cook-house for food. I 
took my quart cup for coffee and another for bean 
soup. My cups were filled, whatever my own con- 
dition was. It was not till I had done justice to 
this last installment that I began to be at all satis- 
fied. I may as well state right here that hunger to 
the recently paroled prisoner was like the thirst 
ascribed to the drunkard, absolutely insatiable. To 
paraphrase the words of the hymn, we ate but ever- 



30 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

more were hungry. Many a man lost his life 
through indiscretion in eating. I must think that I 
owed my own life to the fact that my stomach was 
tolerably new, and so far as I was concerned, had 
been pretty well used, i. e., I had never abused it 
by excesses of any sort. The middle-aged men and 
those who had been hard drinkers found the new 
ordeal a very severe one. As I regard the matter 
now, I wonder what I did with so much food, but it 
was no wonder to me then. The fifty-seven dollars 
of half ration money paid to me at the barracks was 
nearly all expended in what I called getting even 
with time. If this was money for food that I had 
not eaten, then I clearly owed it to myself to eat its 
value as soon as possible. It was not till months 
afterward that the unnatural craving for food wore 
off. To anticipate a little, when I reached home my 
appetite was at high water mark, and I became the 
great wonder of the neighborhood. I could not wait 
for breakfast before beginning to eat ; a luncheon in 
the forenoon was always necessary ; ray dinner wa* a 
hearty one, and there had to be a filling in time long 
before supper, and after that, usually final meal, I 



AND HOME. 



31 



found it desirable to take a parting mouthful before 
retiring. Chinking, so to speak, was had constantly 
in the way of pop-corn and apples. I lived through 
it ; many didn't. 

After we had had time to attend to the demands 
of hunger, our very careful supervisors ordered us 
to the bath-house, where we were stripped of every 
rag of apparel and subjected to a most thorough 
scrubbing with hot water and soap. The cast-oft" 
clothing was piled up like a small hill outside of the 
building. In my haste and happiness to get rid of 
ray old prison reminders, I failed to take from my 
pocket the remainder of the money that my com- 
rade, Schiffer, had loaned me. When my loss oc- 
curred to me it was too late to remedy it, for a long 
and diligent search among the filthy cast-oft' rags 
availed me nothing. In a pile of several thousand 
United States garments he would be a wise man who 
could recognize his own breeches. 

At the instigation of Schifier, I remained a few 
days at the College barracks to assist, but I found that 
my long lack of femiliarity with the pen had served 
to make me almost a child again, so I was of little 



32 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

use in the office. I was too weak for the room where 
clothing was dealt out. Besides, I knew that away 
up north a family was wondering where the oldest 
boy was, and the tugs at my heart strings were 
stronger than I could resist. I might linger here to 
tell of the fun that those who were regularly de- 
tached had at their quarters ; of the quaint and 
queer tricks they played ; of the surroundings of 
the barracks ; but these items would not have suffi- 
cient bearing on my story. I managed to see 
something of the city, famous in our national annals. 
I sat in the very room where Washington stood 
when he resigned his commission as commander of 
the Revolutionary armies, and I crawled to the very 
top of the state house. I actually went up on hands 
and knees, because ni}^ legs ftiiled me in the stair- 
climbing business. 

Concluding that my duty called me home at the 
earliest moment possible, 1 asked for a transferral to 
parole camp. This was located some three or four 
miles west of the city and had accommodations for 
several thousand men. Eating and talking over 
late hardships, along with the comparing of notes 



AND HOME. 33 

with men from other prisons, formed our chief occu- 
pation here. My furlough and my departure come 
speedily and happily, I make my way to Baltimore, 
and thence by the Northern Central Railroad I jour- 
ney homeward. The only incident of this trip 
worthy of mention, is the stopping for dinner in 
Williamsport, Penn. There was a great throng at 
the restaurant, and before I could get to the table 
the bell rang for us to go aboard the cars. What 
was I to do? I had paid my dollar and-a-half — 
dinners cost something in those days — and had not 
had a mouthful. My old haversack was at my side. 
It would hold everything but coffee. I resolved to 
put it to the test. Accordingly I made my way to 
the table, regardless of ceremony, and procured a 
cup of coffee which I drank at once. Then, open- 
ing the wide mouth of my haversack, I tumbled in 
everything that I could reach. Bread, meat of all de- 
scriptions, vegetables as I could find them, till the 
well-filled interior of the bag reminded me that I 
must have my money's worth. This was not done 
on the sly, I'll assure you, for I was the observed of 
all observers, receiving from them hearty cheers 



34 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

while I was filling up. The supply was ample for 
me even, clear up to my reaching home. It was on 
this trip that a fellow passenger indulged in the pro- 
fanity alluded to in a former paper, over a piece of 
my ration preserved from Danville. 

Reaching Elmira late at night, and having to 
leave early in the morning, I enter a saloon and so- 
licit the privilege of spreading my blanket on the 
floor for a few hours, a favor readily granted. , 
This is no hardship for me, since I am used to a bed 
on the floor. The unceasing din of noisy drinkers 
does not disturb me in the least. At the proper 
hour I took the train for Watkins, and went by boat 
to Geneva on the old New York Central Railroad. 
As I wandered over the bout I was not a little 
pleased to find it the very one in which I had jour- 
neyed southward a year before. I knew it, for 
written on the smoke stack was my own name, 
placed there, boy-like, by myself. I felt as if I had 
found an old friend. 

The great throbbing engine cannot bear me swiftly 
enough, now that I am on my homeward way. East- 
ward we fly, through Syracuse, Rome, Utica, till 



AND HOME. 3& 

finally I am deposited in Herkimer, whence I am to 
make my trip by foot to Middieville, six miles fur- 
ther north. My entire way is along the banks of 
the AVest Canada Creek, whose waters some miles 
above form the famous Trenton Falls, but I am not 
just now aesthetically inclined. I am going home as 
fast as my strength will admit. Of course I should 
have gone to a stable and hired a conveyance, but 
again I overrated my powers of endurance. I had 
walked this same road repeatedly before, and why 
not now ! 1 had progressed only a little way when 
it became painfully apparent that I could not hold 
out. Accordingly I called at the next house and 
asked the farmer if I could hire him to carry me to 
Middieville. This he consented to do for a dollar 
and-a-half. Snugly ensconced in a sleigh with plenty 
of buffalo robes about mo, I made the remainder of 
the journey comfortably. 

Reaching the village, I dismiss my driver as soon 
as I arrive in sight of the lighted windows in the 
parsonage. It is more than a year since I saw the 
interior of that house, and eight months since I have 
heard from any of its occupants. What changes 



36 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

may not have taken place in that interval ! Is it any 
wonder that I do not wish any outsider to witness 
the meeting? The curtains are down, so I get no 
revelation as I approach. Drawing the cape of my 
overcoat above my head I advance to the door and 
knock. Soon a step approaches. I think it that of 
my father. The door opens and father stands be- 
fore me. The soldier coat for a moment confuses 
him, but it is for a moment only, for he speedily ex- 
claims, " Why, my son," and grasps ine warmly by 
the hand. By this time I have entered the room 
where mother takes me to her heart as only a mother 
can. My sister disputes with her the possession of 
my head and shoulders, a seven years old brother is 
hugging for dear life the lower part of my body ; but 
throuo-h all this I am sensible there is somethino^ 
lacking. My anxious look is detected. My eyes 
have indicated what my tongue dare not utter. My 
brother, just in his teens, is missing. Mother, 
whose hair has silvered rapidly during my absence, 
says, " You are looking for Mort." This was and is 
the home name of Mortimer, the playmate of my 
boyhood. " He is not at home now. He has se- 



AND HOME. 37 

cured a place to work in Auburn." What a sigh of 
relief I drew, for I feared that the vacancy indi- 
cated that the boy at home had succumbed to that 
which his soldier brother had escaped. A telegram 
speedily summons him, and ere many hours the 
family is reunited. Of the comparing of notes, of 
the battles fought oyer, of the rejoicings that home 
was found, why take your time to tell? They are 
in the lives and experiences of every listener who 
went to the war and then came back to his home 
again. 

Perhaps, however, I shall never have a better op- 
portunity to say a word about those who saw the 
home side of the war. We who went down to the 
strife, carried the guns, and as we thought then, en- 
dured all the hardships, knew nothing of the terri- 
ble anxiety of those whom we left behind us. The 
great majority of the rank and file were irresponsi- 
ble boys who were fairly happy when their stomachs 
were full and the marches were not too long. Of 
what a father's sensations might be I had not the 
slightest notion till long after the din was over. 
The older men of our comrades did not receive from 

4 



38 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

US the consideration that I now think was their due. 
They were frequently laughed at as blue and gloomy 
when all of us would have been just the same had 
we had equal responsibilities. But young and old 
we had the consolation of action. The march, the 
bivouac, the fight, all these served to distract the 
mind and prevent its dwelling on thoughts which 
brousht heaviness. Not so in the home. There a 
never wanting sense of loneliness abode. The one 
absent in body was ever present in mind. The dan- 
ger to which he was exposed was, if possible, mag- 
nified till the anxious soul fairly consumed itself in 
its ceaseless vigils. Every report of new move- 
ments at the seat of war, brought with it the won- 
der whether the dear one would be endangered, and 
of these contemplated movements those at home 
knew vastly more than did we ourselves, who were 
actors in the drama. How the papers were read ! 
The popular newspaper era in this country may be 
said to date from the days of the war, when the 
correspondent learned what the people wanted for 
news. Was there a battle ! With what feverish 
haste the paper was devoured, dreading, fearing, 



AND HOME. 39 

lest the name dearest of all may appear among the 
fatalities. 

A father enters the home with a copy of the New 
Yorh Herald in his trembling hand. The wife and 
mother who had watched for his return knows that 
he brings sad news. The corps to which their boy 
belongs they know has been designated for a peril- 
ous task, and this paper tells the story of the fight 
and of the casualties. The father cannot trust him- 
self to speak, but he points to one name among the 
missing, and then betakes himself to his closet for 
prayer, his refuge in every hour of distress. The 
mother reads the name of her first born, as not ac- 
counted for, and what boots all the rest? Patriot 
though she is to her heart's core, she cannot help the 
question, " Is the purchase worth the price ? " With 
what diligence must she pursue her household du- 
ties to prevent the weight of her calamity crushing 
her. Anon, she searches for the father, and finds 
him with his Bible in hand looking for comforting 
passages. His hands tremble as he turns the leaves 
of the well-read book, and here and there he finds 
words that to him afford comfort. He has preached 



40 RICHMOND, ANNAPOLIS, 

from these to many a congregation when their dead 
were brought home to them, and now he must face 
the dread possibilit3\ Will his faith shrink? I 
think not. Through those eyes a long line of pat- 
riotic ancestry is looking, and though the sacrifice 
were thrice as great there would be no faltering with 
him. But such tests bring their inevitable results 
in premature age. Many a boy left his parents 
with not a token of advancing years visible in them, 
and after a few months' absence returned to find 
wrinkles and gray hairs making sad inroads on his 
parents* faces. During the furlough, following my 
imprisonment, it was my pleasure to sit at the table 
of certain aged relatives who had for sundry reasons 
always possessed an unusual regard for me. Said 
the gentleman, " We have never sat at this board, 
during all the months of your being with the Rebels, 
without wishing you might have some of the food 
before us ; and we have never knelt at the family 
altar without bearing you in our prayers to the 
throne of the Heavenly Grace." Behind the most of 
us, who imperiled health and life, there were just 
such prayers constantly ascending and whatever our 



AND HOME. 41 

own lives, we were not sorry that this praying con- 
tingent was ceaseless in its activity. 

Our battling was that home in the broadest and 
deepest sense might exist in all this fair land ; that 
no nominal owner might separate the father from his 
children, a wife from her husband. Our fight was 
a winning one, and with the end of our fighting was 
the end of the glaring and flaunting lie that one 
man could hold and enslave his fellow man. Hence- 
forth the flag that we had followed was to float over 
a race of free men, free to come and go, free to 
make and hold, what I have tried to picture here, a 
Home. 



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